On Wednesday, Imangi Studios revealed that its Temple Run franchise managed to cross the billion download threshold sometime between the release of Temple Run and its sequel, Temple Run 2. It may not have been the first mobile game franchise to pull off the feat as Angry Birds did the same more than two years ago but it’s impressive nevertheless.

The first game in the franchise, created by Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova, debuted in 2011. The title is often credited with creating the now-popular endless runner genre in which players guide a character through an increasingly difficult environment.

In an interview with USA Today, Shepherd said if you can bring something novel and new to the table, it adds that extra excitement level and that extra component to the virality of it. The success of the franchise has been amazing, he added.

Collectively, gamers have played over 32 billion games to date and have run a total of 50 trillion in-game meters. Yeah, that’s a lot of play time.

So, what’s next for the budding 11-person company? They recently opened a new office in Raleigh, North Carolina. Shepherd said the studio may work on Temple Run 3 at some point but they have some other games in the works in the meantime.

In your opinion, which is the better franchise, Angry Birds or Temple Run? Sound off in the comments below!